As I followed Apple's announcements of the new features in iPhone OS 4 this afternoon (see the transcript of the live blog on Gearlog and our news story), what struck me was how Apple is making the iPhone and iPad more like "real PCs," at a time when other companies are moving in the other direction.

The new OS, which is slated to ship this summer, contains such features as multitasking, folders, and even keyboard support--features that have been part of PCs running Mac, Windows, and Linux have had for many years. But they seem to be implemented in new ways, designed for handheld and slate devices.

Much of the attention will go to multitasking, a feature that Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has said wasn't implemented before because it would have made the phone feel sluggish and would have reduced battery life. In this case, it seems to be done by limiting the number of services exposed to developers, including background audio, voice over IP, location, push notifications, and task completion; and otherwise pretty much just storing the state of an application and being able to return to it very quickly.

This a big deal for certain kinds of applications. You now should be able to run apps like Pandora in the background, so you can listen to your music while doing other things. Applications such as Skype now could receive calls in the background (note that this was demonstrated over WiFi). The lack of multitasking has probably been the biggest weakness of the iPhone, compared with other mobile operating systems, and this should offer enough of it to overcome those concerns for most people

The other new feature I really like is the enhanced mail client, which now will offer a combined inbox with multiple Exchange accounts and conversation threading and the ability to launch applications from within the inbox. (In other words, if you get a document as an attachment, you can open it in Pages or another application by just clicking on it.) That doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's hugely important for someone who wants to rely on the device for business. In addition, there are a lot of other enterprise features, including data protection and encryption. By itself, this won't make the iPhone more attractive than the BlackBerry to businesses, but it will help Apple in those organizations that care about such things.

Version 4.0 is also including folders as a way of organizing your applications, the ability to change the wallpaper, a new system for integrating ads into applications, the inclusion of iBooks, and support for Bluetooth keyboards. (The last two are already available for the iPad). And Apple announced an upcoming gaming system that makes it easier to find people to play against. That last feature seems designed to position the iPhone against Windows Phone 7's Xbox Live feature as well as pure gaming systems like those from Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, but is slated to really be rolled out late in the year (as opposed to the other advancements which should roll this summer).

As I understood it, the iPhone 3Gs, third-generation iPod touch and the iPad (and presumably a new version of the iPhone this summer and of the iPod touch later) will get all these features, with the iPhone 3G and some older iPod touches getting some of the features, not including multitasking. It still doesn't offer Flash support, and Apple didn't discuss new hardware or carriers at this event; it was aimed at developers.

But let's look at this as a whole. Multitasking, folders, better email, better security, and keyboards are all features we're used to from PCs. By adding these features, Apple is making its new platform a lot more like its old one. If it can preserve the simplicity people like about the iPhone at the same time, that could be a big winner.

Michael J. Miller's Forward Thinking Blog: forwardthinking.pcmag.com
Michael J. Miller is chief information officer at Ziff Brothers Investments, a private investment firm. From 1991 to 2005, Miller was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine, responsible for the editorial direction, quality, and presentation of the world's largest computer publication.
No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions...
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